Three-month-old baby has baby

JAKARTA (JP): Doctors in the East Java town of Kediri have successfully removed a fetus from a three-month-old female baby, a press report said yesterday.

Initially, doctors in the Baptis Hospital had thought that Gita Novia Rahma's stomach had progressively swelled because of a tumor until they performed surgery last week.

The fetus was dead and Gita, a daughter of cigarette factory workers, remained under medical treatment at the hospital on Saturday, Kompas daily reported.

Before the surgery, Gita weighed 5.8 kilograms. But her weight was recorded as being only 3.8 kilograms after the operation. The fetus weighted one kilogram.

The hospital's director, Sukoyo Suwandini, said Saturday that the fetus was in fact Gita's twin sister who "failed to grow properly".

He said the case was nothing new in the medical world. Gita's case was the third Baptis Hospital had handled over the past two decades, he added.

Gita's parents said her stomach had swollen since birth and they only sought medical attention after it grew out of proportion. (pan)